U.s. Considers Plans To Kidnap Terrorism Suspects

January 19, 1986|By New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Reagan administration has been debating several proposals to abduct suspects in terrorist attacks on Americans abroad and bring them before American courts, say administration officials.

So far, senior officials have declined to approve the plans, but the admininistration is continuing to consider the idea, officials said. For example, they said, the CIA and the United States Marshals Service now are preparing a contingency plan for seizing several people in the Middle East who have been implicated by U.S. authorities in two recent terrorist actions.

Abraham Sofaer, the State Department's legal adviser, said he was prepared to support the seizing of fugitives in other countries if the chances for success were reasonable.

He acknowledged that such a move would violate international law, but said there were legitimate arguments in favor of bending the rules in extraordinary circumstances.

Objections to the operations included fears about the precedent that would be set, uncertainty over the effect on the countries involved and the reaction of the European allies. In addition, officials acknowledged that there was a high risk of something going wrong.

In the wake of a rash of terrorism in the past three years, the Reagan administration has pushed to apply legal sanctions to terrorists. Administration officials have supported laws that would apply American criminal statutes to assaults on Americans abroad, and they have used federal grand juries to investigate the major terrorist attacks.

However, terrorists have so far been largely successful in avoiding punishment by courts anywhere.

Investigations of terrorist acts against Americans abroad are being handled by federal grand juries in Washington under the direction of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.

Cases under investigation include the abductions of six Americans missing in Beirut in the last two years; the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro last October; the shootings at the Rome and Vienna airports last Dec. 27; the bombings in 1983 of the U.S. embassies in Beirut and Kuwait and of the U.S. Marine garrison in Beirut, and the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 last June.

The only publicly announced action has been the issuance of arrest warrants for three men believed to be the original TWA hijackers, although there may be other charges or warrants that are being kept under court seal, officials said.

''The effort to apply law to modern terrorism is really in its infancy,'' said Sofaer. ''We have just opened a law office, so to speak.''